A week of good habits slowly disappears like a shot of a setting sun in a movie and ‘cut, cut, cut…’ springs to mind a line from a movie that I can’t remember where two directors are talking and one is saying, ‘that today everything is cut, cut, cut…’ and as he is describing his frustration with modern film the audience is being treated to one of the longest uninterrupted shots, the irony is funny.

This week I’ve got my fill of exercise, I have managed to put a few things to bed but the work continues to rumble on. I bought a red umbrella, it felt random but I was waiting for a rainy day before I went back to the shop to get it.

I’ve been listening to Azymuth’s last album, Butterfly, the first half is better than the second. If it were an LP, I think I would probably only play side one and then occasionally flip it over to listen to a couple of tracks.

To my surprise Fringe can to an end on Thursday, the football season came to an end on Wednesday, the American’s short stay in Cape Town came to an end on Tuesday, May’s work accrued came to an end on Monday which was payday and the weekend came to an end on Sunday together with the Premiership. Today the working week comes to and end but the weekend begins and yesterday I managed to do a yoga move for the first time in my passage for the briefest of moments, a new chapter in dexterity might be in the offing.

I hope it’s cold this weekend, I have got red wine to uncork, I also hope that I can finish the book that I started a couple of week’s ago and begin in earnest In Praise of Slow before June begins. May as I have posted previously is the hardest month of the year for me, August and October are challenging as well but May is tough as old boots. In fact I almost booked a ticket to go visit my brother this afternoon but I refrained, I need a little more information from Virgin before I do, mentally I need to get away and I know that on a Zen level you never really get away but sometimes it’s nice to con yourself and to put a peg in the ground.

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The playlist:

Butterfly – Azymuth

It’s so good just keep it on repeat – an old Herbie Hancock track.

‘Nothing to do except sit in the park waiting for the fixture list’ – Nick Hornby

The football season has come to an end and while ‘first is first and second is nowhere’ it was a great run in by the Reds to have lost six games in the season without any trophies to show for the effort isn’t deserving nor fair but ‘so it goes.’

I was pleased for Hull they managed to stay up in spite of the old enemy Munchester United beating them at home, Newcastle lost (the pun is intended) as well and Hull will continue to play Premier league football in 2009/10. It’s going to be a great year for football, ooh ten, with the World Cup and all.

Hull became a sentimental favourite of mine, and it proves once again that it doesn’t take much to support a team, women probably only like the shirts and that’s enough, but I knew where Hull was on the map after the Housemartins released that classic album London 0 Hull 4, I just wonder if they realised that a host of Indie kids all around the world would be pulling for their team on the final day.

My brother supports Newcastle, don’t ask why, I’ve never worked it out either, if you ask him now he’ll probably say it’s baseball season so who cares. But we were at loggerheads yesterday I wanted Hull to stay up he wanted Hull to go down and for Newcastle to stay up. Newcastle went down (say it like a Hollywood straight to dvd line, Newcastle went down!). Lets be honest Newcastle were only briefly cool under Kevin Keagan and before that when Michael Caine went back home to the North East in that classic movie Get Carter.

Football support, like supporting most things I guess is often split within a family or a group of friends, admittedly I put up with a few Manu supporters, there are even BoSox fans that I ‘like’ but that’s what makes it fun, having this constant source of a friendly rivalry.

But it’s all over for a few months, you know, where to now brown cow? What does one do with one’s Saturdays, do I really have to make friends and be social, get involved, I’m at a total loss, I’ve got swimming on my immediate agenda but that won’t blunt all of the energy I may just have to go out on the town and engage…for two terrible months and I age sometime in between.

Ooh soo it goes, soo it goes!

The Esquire rule states never admit to drinking tea until you’ve got the job.

If it’s Revolution Tea that you are admitting to you’ll probably get the job. My batch arrived and it’s apparent that I don’t do moderation very well when it comes to beverages but you know different moods require different beverages and since we can’t bring hip flasks with us to the office and spiking our oranges is not allowed, a good cup of quality tea goes a long way to improving my mood.

Sweet Ginger Peach; Tropical Green; Southern Mint; White Tangerine; Golden Chamomile and Orange Chocolate which I’m trying at the moment, a little decadence on Friday post a marathon five hour team meeting is definitely in order. And it is so nice, a soft orange flavour with a gentle chocolate twist and yet still a tea.

My new favourite revolution.

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Only a couple of tracks on the playlist today but good ones none the less :

Errinha a Toa – Leila Pinheiro

Watch what happens – Sergio Mendes

I do love this passage from The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton which introduces the chapter on Career Counselling:

However powerful our technology and complex our corporations, the most remarkable feature of the modern working world may in the end be internal, consisting in an aspect of our mentalities: in the widely held belief that our work should make us happy. All societies have had work at their centre; ours is the first to suggest that it could be something much more than a punishment or a penance. Ours is the first to imply that we should seek to work even in the absence of a financial imperative. Our choice of occupation is held to define our identity to the extent that the most insistent question we ask new acquaintances is not where they come from or who their parents were but what the do,the assumption being that the route to a meaningful existence must invariably pass through the gate of remunerative employment.

 I’ve highlighted the parts that interest me the most.

The coolest job title I’ve encountered is techno-visionary, the best for party chit-chat is an architect and I can never say what my profession is when asked quickly because the job title is far too long and confusing but I do believe that I’m a project manager at some level or form.

There’s a storm approaching and it has nothing to do with my going to yoga for the first time in many, many years.

Blue In Green is a kind after hours track on Miles Davis’ 1959 album, Kind of Blue; an album that drummer Jimmy Cobb reflected on as one ‘that must have been made in heaven.’

It’s the perfect way to end a long week, I’m ready to embrace the weekend’s stormy weather and I’ll be MAnin’ up with a duvet and a snifter and whatever else compliments the mood.

‘It’s a paradox: maximal effort with a goal of minimal effort. Ease up, slow down, and embrace counter-urgency.’

1. Drink a cup of tea, put your feet up and stare idly out of the window. Warning: Do not attempt this while driving.

2. Do one thing at a time. Remember multitasking is a moral weakness (except for women who have superior brain function.)

3. Do not be pushed into answering questions. A response is not the same as an answer. Ponder, take your time.

4. Learn our Slow Manifesto.

5. Yawn often. Medical studies have shown lots of things, and possibly that yawning may be good for you.

6. Spend more time in bed. You have a better chance of cultivating your dreams (not your aspirations.)

7. Read the slow stories.

8. Spend more time in the bathtub. (See letter from Major Smythe-Blunder.)

9. Practice doing nothing. (Yes this is the difficult one.)

10. Avoid too much seriousness. Laugh, because you’re live on earth for a limited time only.

http://slowdownnow.org/